8 Months Out
- Organize your planning committee.
- Identify goals for the celebration.
- Discuss options for activities, programs and presentations.
- Identify financial needs and fundraising possibilities.
- Identify volunteer jobs and committees and write up descriptions.
- Solicit committee chairs with specific job and committee descriptions.
- Define a fundraising plan.
- Write a press release (or article) for the newspaper, informing the community of the celebration.
- Identify official participants, entertainment, speakers and local celebrities and request that they put the event on their calendars.
- Visit with a local nursery to order tree seedlings or order them from the Arbor Day Foundation.
2 Months Out
- Begin soliciting donations of needed materials.
- Meet with committee chairs to coordinate/identify efforts.
- Begin public fundraising events.
- Ask the newspaper to publish a small article listing committee members and chairs as well as some of the planned activities.
- Confirm dates and times with officials, entertainment, speakers, etc.
- Meet with schools to coordinate efforts to include students in the tree planting ceremony.
- Meet with a city forester, tree board or horticulturist to identify the tree needs within the community and how to help meet them with the Arbor Day celebration.
- Discuss tree needs with a nursery and place an advance order for trees you’d like to plant during the ceremony.
- Solicit volunteers for the event.
1 Month Out
- Plan tree planting ceremonies with school and community officials.
- Continue with fundraising events.
- Write the program for the event.
- Identify additional financial needs and fundraising possibilities.
- Ask city officials to schedule a proclamation signing the week before Arbor Day.
- Confirm the tree order and delivery schedule with nursery.
- Arrange for someone to dig the hole and correctly plant the tree and provide follow-up care.
- Call your local utility company to ensure that it’s safe to dig.
2–3 Weeks Out
- Schedule a committee chair meeting to make sure every committee is successfully completing assigned activities.
- Determine the status of funds and make plans accordingly.
- Reconfirm with outside participants.
- Schedule a press conference and press release for the week of Arbor Day.
- Distribute flyers and posters with the celebration’s scheduled activities.
- Assign volunteers any last-minute job assignments.
Day of the Celebration
- Plant trees.
- Enjoy the event!
Post-Event Follow-Up
- Pay bills and make arrangements for all remaining financial obligations.
- Write thank you notes to all who participated in an official role.
- Check on tree care committees to make sure they have what they need to follow up.
- Hold an assessment meeting with committee chairs to determine what went well and how things could be improved next year.
